The present invention is directed to a tunnel effect sensor, particularly an acceleration sensor on silicon.
Modern navigation systems require small, easily manufactured and reliable acceleration sensors with a measuring precision down into the range of one one-millionth of the earth's acceleration. Given other sensors such as, for example, given microphones and pressure sensors as well, it is necessary to determine a temporally variable path difference with extremely high precision given movably attached parts. This is possible upon exploitation of the tunnel effect. In sensors of this type as disclosed, for example, by T. W. Kenny et al. in Applied Physics Letters 58, 100 through 102 (1991) and J.Vac.Sci.Technol. A10 (4), 2114 through 2118 (1992), the tunnel effect between a tip arranged at a movable beam and the silicon substrate is exploited for the measurement.